Event recognizes two teens who recovered after being paralyzed.

Sean Kempf remembers how hard the ground felt after he was hit by a car on his right side. But Kempf, now 19, remembers little else until he awoke from a coma 10 days later.

After waking from the coma, Kempf could blink. After more than three weeks on oxygen, he could speak in a raspy voice.

Christopher Pierson can remember landing in the snow.

After 30 days, a muscle in his leg twitched. That twitch, his parents said, became a contraction.

Like Kempf, Pierson's recovery was progressive, a series of little miracles.

Pierson was thought to be paralyzed from the waste down, and Kempf from the neck down. But both walked into a crowded ArtsQuest Center in suits and ties Saturday.

Pierson, Kempf and more than 80 of their caregivers were honored at St. Luke's University Health Network's ninth annual "A Night of Heroes" event at the ArtsQuest Center in Bethlehem.

It's a precarious honor, to be the worst of the worst. But Pierson and Kempf's families are thrilled to celebrate their triumphant recoveries in the face of long odds.

A level 1 trauma center, St. Luke's treats patients with the most significant traumas. The Night of Heroes, trauma surgeon James Cipolla said, is a reminder that even at the highest level of trauma there is hope for meaningful recovery.

Pierson,18, crashed March 1, 2012, at Camelback Mountain. Brandon Zurzolo described his friend's last jump as "slushy and unmaintained." Zurzolo skied up to his friend, who wasn't moving, and asked if he was OK.

"Nah, dude. I'm paralyzed," Pierson said.

He was flown to St. Luke's University Hospital in Fountain Hill, where he was diagnosed with a spine fracture that left him paraplegic. Neurosurgeons performed spinal decompression surgery on Pierson, who then spent four days in the intensive care unit.

Pierson's father, John, had been at the base of the slope, where they had agreed to meet, when he got a garbled phone call from Zurzolo that Pierson was hurt. The helicopter was John Pierson's first indication how bad the injury actually was.

While friends were getting their driver's licenses, Pierson was relearning to walk. Tutors kept him on track, and he was able to graduate — and walk — with his class. Pierson, of Lake Hopatcong, N.J., is now a freshman at Ohio State University, where he still attends physical therapy three times a week. But he was able to ski a beginner slope by the one-year anniversary of his accident after spending months in physical therapy with skis on.

Kempf, of Palmer Township, was hit by a car just after midnight Nov. 22 after leaving work at Best Buy. It was black Friday, his employer's biggest day of the year, and he volunteered to stay past his shift. He was hit on his right side and taken to St. Lukes University Hospital. He had a fractured neck, open fractures on all his limbs, a pelvic fracture, bruised lungs and lacerations of his liver and spleen. He underwent surgery to stabilize his spine.

His father, Kevin Kempf, got the call while he was in Syracuse, more than three hours away.

"It was the longest drive," Kevin Kempf said.

Early on, Sean Kempf had all the signs of severe brain damage and paralysis, his father said. Eventually he could blink on command. And as soon as he could speak, he asked for a room upgrade.

"We couldn't help but laugh when we heard it, because it was just so off the wall," Kevin Kempf said.

Kempf eventually required six more orthopedic and neurosurgical procedures to repair his injuries. After 30 days in the hospital, he was moved to Good Shepard Rehabilitation.

Kempf, a National Guardsman, likely would have been serving in Afghanistan. Now, he's taking online classes and working toward a two-year degree in business administration.